COMPANY SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY

Details

AN ALBUM OF TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
COMPANY SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY
The album comprising 84 paintings and seven flyleaves, each painting opaque pigments on paper, set within gold and polychrome rules, the margins plain with an inscription identifying the scene in English below in black ink, interleaving glassine between each folio, red morocco binding with gilt stamped floral decoration
Paintings 6 x 4in. (15.2 x 10cm.) approx.; folio 7 5/8 x 6 ¼in. (19.5 x 15.8cm.)

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Lot Essay

Small format albums containing paintings of tradespeople and Indian rulers were popular subjects for Company School artists in the 19th century and most likely produced as souvenirs for affluent European visitors to India. The portrait of Raja Amani Singh of Aligarh (d.1857) helps date our album to the mid-19th century. Another Company School album of trades was sold Christie's South Kensington, 24 April 2013, lot 181. More recently an album of twenty-nine paintings of tradespeople and figures from South India sold at Bonhams, London, 23 May 2023, lot 205.

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